PDA

View Full Version : Parking structure nightmare



Cadaverous Pallor
10-14-2001, 11:56 AM
Ghoulish Delight and I visited the park last night. We got to the structure at about 7:30 pm. There was the usual amount of people arriving. We were directed to go right and up the ramp, and suddenly we are at a dead stop in a line of cars. A dead stop? It made no sense. It took a few starts and stops to get up the ramp - and then we noticed that the CM was directing traffic up on the level we were headed towards (Mickey). Other cars, presumably leaving the structure, were driving around and we had to wait for a break in traffic to get onto the level. This is obviously because of the change in design in the traffic flow in the structure. We were completely flabbergasted. Once we did finally get up there it was another "here we go round the mulberry bush" until we were finally parked. We were worried we wouldn't make it to the DTD theater to see a movie by 7:55! As it was, we ran and made it.

Is it just us, or are things WORSE now that they changed the flow of the structure? I never noticed any problems with the old system. Anyone know why they changed it? :confused:

Nigel2
10-15-2001, 11:56 AM
If you were only going to be there for a couple of hours why didn't you park in the lot and get it validated? BTW if you are a woman as stated in another thread then arent you the Pumpkin Queen?

Ghoulish Delight
10-15-2001, 12:21 PM
After the movie we hopped into DL until closing, so we were there for more than a couple hours.

innerSpaceman
10-15-2001, 05:50 PM
Nothing like making a bad situation worse. I actually thought they had the traffic flow going well and am mystified as to why they would throw a monkey wrench into it.

To me, however, the real nightmare is the existence of the parking structure at all. Every time I drive in, I can't help but think of the little kids that, upon their arrival at the happiest place on earth, are greeted not by the sight of the majestic Matterhorn, but by the ugly cement parking structure. Mom, are we at Disneyland or the mall?

FEJ
10-15-2001, 07:24 PM
I still don't get why they changed the parking pattern. Is it so they can stick a piece of paper on your windshield? We arrived Saturday night around 8:30pm, and were caught in the same "stop and go" as CP. it was nice to be able to park close to the escalators, but once we left, we had to drive almost a complete circumference around the garage before we could head down from the goofy level. It does not make sense. if they let half of the garage use the side ramp, it might make more sense, but it seems to have caused a headache. but then again, I'm thinking logical...LOL

tjrj
10-16-2001, 05:56 AM
InnerSpaceman: right on! The last time we were at Disneyland-September '99(going this December), we saw the work on the parking structure. My husband & I both thought that it reminded us of nothing so much as a mall stucture. No more pulling into that huge(usually empty-in the AM) lot and see the Matterhorn as we walked to the gates. Boo-hiss!

Ghoulish Delight
10-16-2001, 08:20 AM
Am I the only one who likes the structure? Of course, I'm heavy on physics and engineering, so it's right up my ally. I love large structures. They're just nifty. But what I really like is that the parking is removed from the park. I do miss the old entryway, with the canopy leading to the ticket booths, but I also know that that's only because that's what I grew up with. Think of a kid who has never been there before. You drive forever, park, leave your car, and get on a Disney tram, go through a pleasent tree-lined pathway, and emerge at Disneyland. I love the tram ride. It adds to the feeling of removal from the outside world we all love about DL.

mad4mky
10-16-2001, 08:35 AM
I don't mind the parking structure. I got a kick out of the escalators...and the trams were more effecient than they were with the old lot. Not much waiting at all. Easier to find your car also.

Niwel
10-16-2001, 11:51 AM
I haven't noticed a change lately. Does it only affect people who come to the park later in the day? The last three times I've been there, I came early in the morning. Or maybe I've got too much pixie dust in my eyes to care.:)

And does anyone else miss that glorious feeling that was there before DCA was built when you could get out of your car and see the beautiful Disneyland skyline. Then you would RUN, yes that's right RUN, from wherever your car was to the front gate. (I've parked in the Timon lot and it is not the same thing)

I love Disneyland but I would give anything to have those times back:D

Nigel2
10-16-2001, 02:14 PM
Well I liked it when 33 club use to get to park right infront.:D But the major perk about the parking structure is that on a boiling day (especially if you drive a black car) it turns into an over inside, and the seatblets become branding irons. But in the structure the cars don't get boiling. I am guessing they just recently changed the arrow directions in the structure though. Is it just me or should we be kind of paranoid that some punk might hit the emergency stop button on the higest escalator? Could you imagine now many people could be injured? Better hold on tigher now:D

Ghoulish Delight
10-16-2001, 03:24 PM
Does it only affect people who come to the park later in the day?

Yes, that's exactly it. Thanks to the new traffic flow, the aisle that the entrance ramp puts you into as your coming in is the same aisle that exiting cars are using as the loop back around to the exit ramp. So there's a lot of stopping and starting as the entrance line has to merge into the exit line.

Cadaverous Pallor
10-16-2001, 08:20 PM
I like the structure, it's nifty. I just wish the parking wasn't a stop and go pain in the butt.

FEJ
10-16-2001, 08:25 PM
Man do I miss that walk under the Monorail...Down the tree lined path to the entrance.. as the anticipation built ..what memories.

Morrigoon
10-16-2001, 08:45 PM
I miss the blue and yellow trams... they were happier looking. Why couldn't they recreate that look on the new ones?

BiggJakeMoney
10-16-2001, 10:44 PM
I actually enjoy the parking structure. I agree with Ghoulish Delight, the tram ride through the tree-lined drive does enhance the "removal from reality" experience, and now, instead of walking many miles from your car to the front of Disneyland when the old lot existed, it's only a short trek to the escalators.

-BJM

Uncle Dick
06-18-2002, 01:44 AM
Originally posted by Cadaverous Pallor
Is it just us, or are things WORSE now that they changed the flow of the structure? I never noticed any problems with the old system. Anyone know why they changed it? :confused:
Yeah, I know this thread is old, but since no one answered the question, I thought I'd better put the issue to rest. The traffic flow through the structure was changed because too many people would attempt to pull in to parking spaces closer to the escalators rather than drive all the way down to the end of the structure and park in the space indicated by a frantically waving CM. As it is now, people still pull in halfway down the row for no reason in particular. The restriping of the structure does make the exit a bit of a pain for some people who get sent in a big loop and never make it out, but overall, I think it works out better for both guests and CMs.

bluepearl
06-18-2002, 02:25 AM
Just to add onto Uncle Dick's post, I believe it also had to do with safety. Through the original flow, cars would drive towards the back of the structure (away from the escalators), while guests were walking towards the front. If a driver were to go a little faster in the structure, I'm sure that many guests got a bit of a scare while they were walking towards the escalators.

MickeyD
06-19-2002, 12:06 AM
Originally posted by bluepearl
Just to add onto Uncle Dick's post, I believe it also had to do with safety. Through the original flow, cars would drive towards the back of the structure (away from the escalators), while guests were walking towards the front. If a driver were to go a little faster in the structure, I'm sure that many guests got a bit of a scare while they were walking towards the escalators.

Funny, I just figured out this exact same thing today, when I realized it's been months since I heard a parking CM shout, "Please move out of the way of the moving traffic."

TP2000
06-19-2002, 02:18 AM
<<"To me, however, the real nightmare is the existence of the parking structure at all. Every time I drive in, I can't help but think of the little kids that, upon their arrival at the happiest place on earth, are greeted not by the sight of the majestic Matterhorn, but by the ugly cement parking structure. Mom, are we at Disneyland or the mall?">>

Do you remember how ugly that old surface lot actually was? It was paved in the John F Kennedy era, and it showed. The exit lanes out onto Harbor, Katella and West Street were a NIGHTMARE on a summer night after fireworks or Fantasmic!. There were huge overgrown bushes all around it, with unmagical rusting chain link fence and ugly metal signs all over the place. In winter when it would rain, or had recently rained, giant lake sized puddles would accumulate all over the place. The inflow in the morning was satisfactory, but the outflow in the evening often became gridlocked quite easily. And the gridlock continued out onto the surface streets until you could actually get to a freeway onramp. And right through the middle of the thing ran these HUGE SoCal Edison power lines that were installed in the 1950's. They were giant and ugly and surrounded by more chain link fence and ratty looking bushes.

I saw some old pictures of that lot from the late 1980's recently, and it's just really amazing how utilitarian and simply ugly the facility was. Not until you got about 20 yards from the monorail beam closest the main entrance would you see your first tree. And the main entrance itself received a major overhaul two years ago, replacing the pressed concrete and metal signs with brick pavers, trees, rose bushes climbing up the monorail beam, themed lighting, and brand new ticket booths and turnstile structures. The Disneyland main entrance looks much, much better than it did before it's update and remodel.

Certainly it's fun to wax nostalgic about yesterland and Disneyland memories of our youth. But that giant surface parking lot was extremely ugly. And the Disneyland main entrance facilities that it led to weren't that great compared to what we have now either.

I'll take the parking structure, flaws and all, over the way we used to park our cars at Disneyland in the 20th century. And I will trust that when a CM tells me to drive a certain way, there's a good reason for it. The safety of other pedestrians and drivers for instance.

coronamouseman
06-19-2002, 03:50 AM
TP2000:

Well, I can remember the days when if you had a Premium AP you could park literally a few feet from the main gate at DL - that was pretty cool ........

There is no doubt that such a large parking structure will have its own problems with traffic and pedestrian flow - in general, you would prefer to keep cars moving one way and pedestrians the other - this is no problem in the morning when essentially all the cars are inbound to the far end and the pedestrians are outbound the near end with the escalators......

What I find is my biggest gripe with the new lot is the absence of "creature comfort features" like moving walkways towards the escalators. Been to USO/IOA in Florida lately? - they have an extensive network of moving walkways which makes the trip from the parking stuctures (very close in scale to DLR's) to CityWalk and the parks very easy and relatively relaxing .............

Strikes me as very cheapskate and "non-user-friendly" that DLR would not have a similar system in place to save their guests the "death march" from the trams to the far end of the parking structure at midnight during busy summer nights/mornings ........

Rallymonkey23
06-19-2002, 11:28 AM
This reminds me of when we went there a couple of years ago (around the same time) on the last night before blackout dates started for alot of AP'ers durring the holiday season. Traffic was at a standstill and I could literaly smell my clutch burning up while going up the ramp! Stop, go, stop, go.... you get my drift. Never again will I go on that night. I don't know ezactly when they started the new procedure in the parking lot though, so I don't know if that had anything to do with it.

RStar
06-19-2002, 12:34 PM
I went to DL ONCE on the 4th of July:eek: in the mid 1990s and upon leaving that night was greeted by a 90 minute gridlock!

But I do miss being able to go to the car to grab something in the same amount of time it takes to go to the lockers. And I could make a round trip to my house (4 blocks away) in under 30 minutes.

But the parking structure is easier to get in and out of, is shaded, is easier to find your car, and I like how it is color coded at night.

I heard from a CM friend the main reason for the change was safty. The cars had to drive through the walking guests.

Uncle Dick
06-19-2002, 02:45 PM
Originally posted by RStar
I heard from a CM friend the main reason for the change was safty. The cars had to drive through the walking guests.
The funny thing is that cars still have to drive through walking guests coming off of the adjacent row, especially when two rows are being parked simultaneously.